


Transition

by scribblemyname



Series: Lies Beneath [2]
Category: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Genre: Accidental Relationship, Adoption, Animal Transformation, Canon Character of Color, Denial, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Kidfic, Romance, Slow Build, Team Relationships - Freeform, domestic fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3926512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/scribblemyname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They didn't mean to accidentally acquire a kid, and they certainly didn't mean to end up raising said kid together because they're <em>just friends</em> and everyone's getting the wrong idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transition

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the couplesbigbang. Inspired by a couple of Yuletide prompts, but not gifting it that direction because they specifically didn't ship these two.
> 
>  
> 
> [Gorgeous ART for this story! is here by stormbrite.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4254303)

The team still hung out together on downtime and between missions at IMF headquarters in Seattle or in their favorite cafes and occasionally homes. Jane came over for drinks at Will's place with Benji and sometimes Ethan or Luther, and it was good, like old times from the moment 'Agent Hunt' abandoned them in Dubai before India and all their bonding in between to when they'd gotten the invite after Ghost Protocol was rescinded to meet with Hunt at the little place by the water. There was something solid there that went a little deeper than coworker and worked together on Hunt's team and we were the last of the IMF for a little while.

Jane lingered a little later after Benji yawned and declared it time to hit the sack. He bowed on his way out the door and Jane laughed at the little theatrics he still pulled just to see people smile.

Will declared white flag on the alcohol—"Morning meeting"—but instead of packing up, he brought out a case of root beer and offered Jane a bottle.

"Thanks." She leaned against the railing on his tiny apartment balcony. "I like your place. I like the view."

Will shrugged, clearly used to it. "I guess. So, you miss leading your own team? I mean, wasn't Benji yours?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "He gets to work with his hero." It wasn't like she could compete.

"Come on, Ethan's everybody's hero." He looked at her for a long moment. "You know you can't keep hiding behind Ethan's skirts forever."

Jane shot him an incredulous look while barely stifling a laugh. "Ethan doesn't wear skirts."

"He might," Will countered, tone serious. "He could have a skirt fetish he never talks about."

She laughed and shook her head. "Benji would bet on that."

Benji ran a betting pool among more than just their teammates about all kinds of things, from what form Ethan took when he changed (turned out to be a rat, and she won a thick wad of cash off of Benji for that) to what it would take for Agent William Brandt to take a sick day (she'd bet on bed-ridding illness only).

"Come on. He hauled me out onto the field again," Will pointed out.

"Doesn't count. You're _still_ behind a desk most of the time."

"I'm an analyst. I'm just saying." He shrugged, waffled a little with his body language, but threw it out there. "There's an opening for a team leader. I think you should apply for it."

"Do you." Jane nodded along with him, took another drink from her bottle as she took that in. "I'll think about it."

He gave her a look. "You're overthinking it."

"Agent analyst is telling me this." She straightened. "I mean, come on, you are the _king_ of overthinking."

Will got quiet. "Well, let's just say I recognize it." He took another swig of the root beer.

Jane stared at him for a moment and acknowledged the change in tone with a more serious answer. "I'll think about it."

He failed to suppress a small smile at the repetition and chuckled softly. She rewarded him with a smile of her own.

It wasn't such an idle accusation, and it came friendly and gentle from someone who really did know what he was talking about. Ethan brought it up in Dubai after the wreck of the op at the Burj, but Will had spilled enough guts after Ethan left.

Croatia. Failing at the security detail then taking himself out of the field. Oh, he could get away with not leading a new team, but...

"You used to lead a team too, didn't you?" she rounded on him casually, leaning on the rail again as she sipped.

He huffed at her and shook his head. "Do you know how long it would take to even _train_ someone up to my position?"

"No. Tell me."

It was stalling, turning the tables on him like this, but he let her get away with it, shrugged, and gave a ballpark figure that made her wince.

He looked at her evenly over the top of his root beer, not drinking, just holding it conveniently where she could feel a little less scrutinized. Besides, he preferred a beverage in his hand if he was really going to talk. "I don't want it anymore," he said.

And Jane didn't have anything to counter that. The eagle in her had itched when Ethan told her the Cobalt op was his and she couldn't do a thing to Moreau until he said she could. She'd felt comfortable in the train car until then, comfortable with being an IMF agent, trained to do whatever was necessary and avenge her _people_ until she couldn't and her failure stayed a dark red mark at the back of her mind. Yes, she wanted it still, but she didn't trust herself still.

She sighed, this time a little more resigned. "I'll think about it."

Will was nice enough to nod but not answer.

* * *

She went and looked up the job after pounding her frustrations into a punching bag for a couple hours. It wasn't bad. She had the experience. She'd run ops before that hadn't ended up with nuclear codes in the hands of a French assassin and agents down and dying. She worked with Agent Ethan Hunt, as far as that went. It's not like she needed team lead experience to get a look.

It's not like she wanted anything on Ethan's coattails, no matter how much she liked him personally and professionally.

* * *

"So I've got tickets—" Benji started but only made it four words in before Jane cut him off.

"I've got somewhere to be." She was, in fact, changing for it, from mission clothes to streetwear, yanking on a jacket as she eyed out her baseball cap and decided to go with a ponytail.

"But, Carter," he sputtered. "You don't even know when. Or to what!"

Jane rolled back her chair in the back of their crowded little van and gave a pointed glance at his hand.

He held up tickets to... a comedy.

" _Spaceball Boys_? Really, Benji."

"You'll love it. You're so stressed lately. Taking after Brandt."

"Ha, ha." She finished threading her ponytail through the hole in her cap. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, fine. Don't work too hard."

She grinned at him. "Bye."

* * *

It wasn't a date. Benji kind of had his eye on a cute little brunette in accounting who intimidated him too much for him to actually _ask her out_ , but Jane didn't mind dragging him to outings or getting corralled into the occasional movie where she could poke and prod him until he did.

Like she was one to talk. She shook her head at herself. But Benji didn't—and didn't need to—know that.

* * *

Will didn't seem too surprised to see her at his door when he opened it, if he did look a little harried and like he'd had dragged his hands through his hair a few too many times.

"Rough day?" she asked.

"Rough week," he corrected and let her in.

She followed him to the kitchen where he poured her a mug of coffee without asking. She accepted it as wordlessly. He _did_ look like he'd seen better days and more sleep, even without her dropping by with paperwork she actually didn't need to run by him.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Hm?" He brought his head up from his own draught of too-dark coffee (and more than a little bitter from sitting too long). "'M fine."

Like she hadn't heard that one before.

"Are you sleeping?" She tried another angle, the sleep test he was always failing.

But Will shrugged easily, not really an answer either way. "How's the office? Missed a couple days."

That gave her pause. "Out sick?"

"Seriously, Carter, not the betting pool thing." He wasn't exactly slow on the uptake and she was close enough friends with him to gleefully not care.

"I've got good money riding on that," she protested. "This is necessary data."

"Gather your own intel."

"I'm trying to," she pointed out, _completely_ reasonably.

A sharp, high bark interrupted, startling Jane and making Will tense. She looked at him questioningly, but he'd already started in the direction of the living room, then paused in the walkway, waiting. She followed gingerly and stopped beside him.

He was looking at the dog bed in the corner that hadn't been there a week ago where a soft, muffled whine now issued from a small bundle of grey and white fur, paws, and lolling tongue. A wolf cub.

"What's this?" she asked quietly, keeping her tone soft to not disturb the cub Will was clearly hoping didn't really need him.

She could almost see his hackles rise—even if he didn't really have them as a human.

She felt her own body tense at that look, muscle and tendon prepared to shift, fingers itching to grow sharp talons. She held it in, stayed calm.

Will's wary, intense gaze held. "A cub," he said.

She glanced over again then back at him. It wasn't _just_ a cub or she didn't have to tamp down on the eagle under her skin. It was a child.

IMF agents certainly weren't forbidden to have children, though it was not so common as rumor and the gossip mill speculated. The fact that the surprise felt cutting and painful wasn't based on her work relationship to Will. No, this was something a little more personal. She thought they were becoming friends, close friends even, and after everything that involved, it felt like a gut punch that Will would have a child and not let out even a hint of it, let alone that he would look at her like he wanted to change to wolf and protect that child _from her_.

Jane forced a smile over the top of that sting and said sincerely, "She's beautiful."

She was beautiful, and tiny, not much more than a newborn but clearly less grown than a pure wolf of similar age. When Jane focused on looking at the child over her mug instead of at Will, the smile became more genuine.

"She's so new." Such a baby bundle of fur curled up in the bottom of the high-walled dog bed, not even sprawled out limbs trying to walk.

"Her name's Alicia." The wariness not gone from his voice, but the protective instinct relaxed a notch.

Jane felt the predator inside her relax slightly at the feeling of Will's humanness reasserting dominance and the feeling that he wasn't about to change. They were both predators, the only ones on Ethan's team oddly enough, considering they were hardly the most dangerous in their human forms.

"She's my brother's, my niece," Will offered.

Jane looked at him carefully. He seemed to be offering the information freely, a little more comfortable with the topic. "Strange for her to change so young," she ventured.

Will shrugged. "Her mother was in wolf form when she was born. Her father— Well, he's gone now and I ended up with the baby."

He seemed to visibly force himself to relax, and as Alicia's whining faded to more even breaths in and out, it seemed more natural.

Jane took that in. There was a lot of detail there he wasn't telling, but it was more than she'd expected and more than he actually needed to tell her. No wonder he looked tired and harried if he had recently acquired a newborn. She wanted to thank him for the confidence, but it seemed like too much, so she asked instead, "Can I hold her?"

The small smile that flitted through his eyes and over his face seemed to brighten the moment and dispel what remained of the awkwardness. He gestured with his mug. "Sure."

Jane leaned down slowly and let Alicia notice her before gently picking her up. She _was_ new, eyes barely opening to slits to look at her, paws curled up against her body. Born a wolf. It wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't common and it came with its own set of challenges.

"Aren't you just beautiful?" Jane tucked Alicia in close and Alicia let her, yawning wide and loud, before closing her eyes again, snuggling in close, and going back to sleep.

Jane was pretty sure that was the moment she fell in love.

* * *

She filled out the paperwork at home and set it on the table in her living room to stare at her accusingly until she turned it in. It's not like Ethan needed her for his mission in Kandahar or the training thing he still claimed he'd been tricked into running for baby IMF agents. It was only a month. He could survive cat-herding. It's not like Benji wasn't reveling in his month or so of testing the new batch of gizmos that came out of R&D—and telling Jane everything she didn't need to know about them. And "No, Benji," she did not need to know twenty ways to use massage technology for secret/special agenting purposes.

So, in short, it wasn't like she wasn't at loose enough ends that applying to lead a team for a set of interrelated missions in South America wasn't a good idea, even if the intel wasn't all in and the mission start date was hazily undefined. That was the IMF. That was life.

It was just...

It was her fault Hannaway died, her fault that Moreau did, and Ethan was too forgiving for her to quite believe him when he said it wasn't. He didn't blame her, but it was her op, and she had enough blame from herself.

* * *

Jane found enough to do, getting a flash drive for a 24-hour mission that required one agent and flawless German. It took her long enough to get some of the restlessness out of her system in the breathless rush of get-it-done, get-it-done-right, shift-to-eagle and take a hostile down by knocking him off...

 _Like you didn't notice the open window or that we were a mile off the ground,_ Will's voice reared out of memory to accuse her harshly.

But it was that or a gun, and it got the job done.

* * *

Monday found her back at Will's place after work because he still hadn't showed at work, and where else could she go exactly to commiserate over her losses?

"So I had to shell out fifty bucks because family emergency wasn't covered in my bet."

"That's why it's called a bet, Carter." Will let her wander in casually behind him as he dropped back into the middle of a mess of wood and hardware.

Jane couldn't help herself. She drifted toward the crib Will had installed sometime over the weekend while she ticked off firing range hours and a non-mandatory tactical training class and peeked in on the baby.

"Did you know Hannaway was a hawk?" she asked.

Alicia was just starting to wake, legs kicking out as though she was dreaming of running.

Will was on the floor attempting to assemble what looked like shelving of some sort. The discarded instruction sheet looked like it was written in ideographs. "You think you would have had fledglings?" he asked a little absently, frowning at the sheet as he hefted a hammer.

Jane leaned down and gently lifted Alicia out of the bed to tuck against her heart and soothe her. The cub snuggled in, eyelids drooping sleepily. "Maybe."

Jane hadn't actually thought about it. Children seemed so unlikely in their line of work. Anything could happen to any of them at any time.

Alicia looked at Jane through half open eyes before she seemed to decide Jane wasn't doing a good enough job taking care of her and started the thin wail for milk.

"Spoiled princess," Will griped good-naturedly.

Jane waited until he had disappeared into the kitchen to bump noses with Alicia, startling the cub to silence, ears pricked with interest. "You're not spoiled, are you?"

When Will came back in quietly, he said softly, "You're good with her."

Jane smiled and bounced Alicia gently. She leaned in and kissed the cub's nose.

Alicia studied her with those big, dark eyes and interested ears, then finally she stretched out and licked Jane's nose back.

* * *

"I got tickets." Jane slapped them down on Benji's laptop screen and held them there with her hand.

"I'm trying to work here. Wait. Is that the latest Spiderman?"

Jane shrugged. "It was that or the latest rom-com. You're not taking me. You're taking that girl from Accounting."

Benji blinked at her, mouth shaped in an amusing O before he found his voice and, "No, no, no, no, no. I _can't_ just take her."

Jane rolled her eyes and grinned at him smugly. "Yes, you can or I'll start a pool that you never will."

"Now, that's just cold." But he plucked the tickets from her hand and studied them.

"I actually started a conversation with her," she went on, perhaps a little ruthlessly. "She loves Spiderman. And she thinks geeks are cute. _Take her._ "

* * *

In the interest of not being a hypocrite, she turned in that application she'd left on the table.

* * *

Will was back at the office at odd hours and working from home more often than not while he tracked down a decent nanny or consistent babysitter.

"You never even told us you had a brother," Benji accused him, "let alone a niece."

Will just rolled his eyes. "So how was your date?"

Ethan leaned back, amused. "So you finally asked her."

"Well," Benji began, "we both like popcorn, and we both got called in for IMF duty."

The collective groans made Jane start to laugh.

"Well, it's not like we're going to turn it down," Benji protested. "Saving the world is pretty important."

"Please say you were at least called in for the same mission," Jane asked hopefully.

But that would be a no.

* * *

Jane would probably offer to babysit, but "It's not like I've got a desk job," she muttered to herself.

Will shrugged and stood back to look at his shelves. "I'm going to have to go on parental leave for a bit anyway." He looked at her. "She needs to transition soon."

"She will."

Will just gave her that uncertain, 'if-you-say-so' look she'd seen more than enough of in Dubai, though that never did stop him from continuing to give it, however annoying everyone found it. Alicia curled up in his lap and he tried picking her up to cuddle her. She squirmed and yipped until he shook his head and settled her back down.

Usually transitioning was a two-parent challenge and not so urgent when the child already had some experience at being human. The learning curve to dealing with an animal form was simply not the same concern as dealing with learning how to be her own human baseline. But Alicia was a wolf and she recognized herself in Will's wolf form. She didn't identify with humanity.

"I could help," Jane said cautiously, a little hesitant.

It was a huge commitment to this teammate/coworker, but he had already stuck his neck out for her more than once and they were _friends_ , and Alicia's needs didn't really take Jane and Will's relationship status into account.

"I'm not a wolf, but..." Jane shrugged.

Will acknowledged thoughtfully, "A wolf isn't what she needs."

Alicia already had that. In Will.

* * *

"Have you ever done this before?" Will asked as he brought in a small stack of blankets. He'd already prepped Alicia's room with low-level light, a comfortable temperature (warmer than usual), and a few things arranged how Alicia liked them best.

"Not exactly," Jane admitted. "I was there for my friend's daughter though."

He looked up at that.

"She was so worried she'd do it wrong, and she had me in there with 'the book'"—Jane air-quoted—"so she and her husband could just focus on Madeline."

Will made an acknowledging sound and dropped the blankets next to where Jane was sitting on the floor with Alicia in her lap. "Nice name," he said.

It was filler. Jane didn't focus on it or on answering. She helped him arrange the blankets so they'd be something close to comfortable through the night. The timing should result in Alicia being a little more worn out from the day and a little less resistant and, if all went well, give Alicia an opportunity to sleep after without completely destroying her normal sleep schedule.

Of course, that's how it was supposed to work. Alicia, being Alicia, was a tense ball of excitement, that Jane was still there, that Will hadn't put her to bed. She squirmed and struggled to figure out this crawling business and poked her nose in Jane's hair, making Jane laugh when she sneezed.

"Serves you right."

Somehow they had to make it work, Jane in human form cuddling Alicia and loving on her, Will in wolf form tickling her and cuddling her, two different factors in Alicia's brain fighting for dominance when she didn't even realize yet she had both.

Alicia was still figuring out how to pounce on Will when he changed the first time. She yipped, startled, and fell off into Jane's lap.

"Hey, Alicia. You're okay. You're okay."

Will's voice joined in with Jane's soft reassurances, hands holding gently without actually lifting her from Jane's arms. "You're okay. We got you."

Alicia started whining a bit and buried her face in Jane's stomach.

"So much for she'll be tired out already," Jane commented wryly.

He shrugged, changed again. They'd always been in for a long night.

It was back and forth, back and forth, until Alicia _was_ tired and confused and finally curling up against Jane for a parent that hadn't changed. Jane cuddled her close, murmuring encouragement.

"Where do you feel the change first?" she asked Will in an undertone.

He indicated on Alicia, and Jane ran her hands up and down Alicia's sides.

"Come on, honey. You can do this."

Alicia whined, finally kicked against the irritation in her body. The sound turned pained, then she changed form for the first time, shifting from wolf bone and tendon and sinew to a wailing, human child with golden brown skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.

Jane shifted on her side to hold Alicia between them. "It's okay. Daddy's got you," Jane said as Will tucked his hand under Alicia's head.

Alicia kept crying through every reassurance and touch until Will finally changed back to wolf and nosed at her chin. She sniffed, flailed her arms to try and hold him. Jane dropped her head wearily to kiss the top of Alicia's.

The quiet stretched until Alicia's breath began to even and Will rested heavily at Jane's side. The two exhausted parents fell asleep on the floor with their child.

* * *

Will wasn't the only one getting parental leave after the initial transition. It was fairly standard procedure and Jane could afford to take a couple weeks according to her vacation bank. She wrote 'transition mother' on the appropriate field and smiled when the HR rep returned her approved time off slip.

Honestly, she thought it was lucky that she'd gotten accepted for the South American missions before she applied for the leave. Jane wasn't naive enough to think they would have let her go if they thought she was turning domestic.

* * *

Will at his Brandtest couldn't stop the team from swooping in to give the traditional post-transition party, and the wry "G—, no" on his opening the door didn't stop Benji's gleeful entrance or Ethan's understated smiles or, for that matter, Jane's bouncing in with an appropriately-sized cake for the adults and a mischievous grin.

"Traitor," he muttered as he closed the door behind her.

She cheekily blew him an air kiss.

He waved her off toward the kitchen.

Alicia was in there already, tucked in her high chair (and Jane allowed herself a brief wonderment at where Will had found the time to get all this stuff when she knew for herself how many conference calls he was on before taking leave), and squealing happily when she saw Jane.

"Guess we know who she likes best," Ethan commented.

"She looks like she could be yours," Benji said, a small amount of surprise in his tone.

Jane shot them a grin and set the cake on the counter. "How's my girl? How are you?"

Alicia held up her arms to be picked up.

"Brandt likes you best too, really," Ethan just had to go and add.

"We're just friends," Jane said for the umpteenth time since Benji had started teasing her about parental leave. She rolled her eyes as she hefted Alicia into her arms, who was heavier than her size warranted. "You're going to be a big wolf like your daddy, aren't you?" Jane leaned in and Eskimo-kissed her girl.

Alicia giggled.

"Yes, you are."

"How do you know she's a wolf?" Ethan asked. He cautiously reached out a finger, and Alicia retreated under Jane's chin.

The eyeroll again. "You've never had kids, have you?" Knowing a baby's form was technically part and parcel of the whole transition process.

One small, sticky hand tangled in Jane's hair as Alicia decided she needed further protection from this stranger and, "Ouch. Thanks for that, Ethan. Hand me the bottle."

"It wasn't my f—"

"Bottle."

"Just say, 'Yes, ma'am,' and get it over with," Benji advised, handing Ethan the bottle.

Ethan gave a longsuffering, serious look at Jane as he passed it to her.

"Thank you," she replied perfunctorily because Benji was perfectly correct. She saw Will leaning in the entry to the kitchen and shot him a small smile.

He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts, and smiled back, but never really took his eyes off Alicia.

* * *

The phone woke Jane at something like two o'clock in the morning, or at least that's what she gathered from her fleeting glance at the red letters blurred by sleepy vision before she snatched up the phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Hi."

"Brandt?" She sat up in bed. He sounded terrible and there was... howling in the background. "Do you need me to come over?"

"Please."

That was good enough. She gave him an ETA and dragged herself out of bed and into some clothes. The trip didn't take more than fifteen minutes before he was letting her inside and she was scooping Alicia into her arms.

"Hey, you're okay."

Alicia hiccuped and pressed her small human face into the crook of Jane's neck. She sniffled loudly.

Will leaned against the wall and scrubbed one hand over his own face. His hair was already pretty crazy from the way he tended to run his hand through it in frustration. "She's clingy," he said.

"Well, we knew that," Jane pointed out, still rocking and swaying, simply glad Alicia had settled down.

Will shook his head. "She doesn't just want me now."

It was obvious once he pointed it out. She started to walk away from Will and heard the whimpering start up again.

"I see," she said.

Will shrugged. "If you'll take the bed, I can sleep on the floor."

It wasn't awkward. They had slept in the same safehouses, same cars, same planes, and once on the same couch. It was part and parcel of their working together that they were able to settle in comfortably in Will's room like it wasn't just a man, a woman, and a baby.

Alicia whimpered when Jane settled in.

"Does she sleep with a night light?"

"No." Will answered from the pallet he'd thrown down.

Jane hummed thoughtfully, then rearranged her and Alicia so the baby could see Will while still being close enough to Jane.

"Do you move in your sleep?" Will asked.

Jane gave him a look because he should have known that she didn't, but she did understand his concern, so she answered. "Never have. There's some distance between us though, and she's tucked in properly, blanket under her arms."

Will looked until he was satisfied, then, "Okay. Goodnight."

Alicia slept fitfully, but she _did_ sleep, and that was enough.

* * *

Morning found a yipping cub licking Jane's face to wake her up.

"Thankfully, she hasn't figured out how to use her legs yet," Jane noted, glad Alicia hadn't managed to throw herself off the bed yet. Soon though.

Will rolled over with a groan, squinting into the morning light.

Jane forgot how hard he could sleep sometimes and grinned down at him as she corralled the cub trying to squirm out of her arms. "Brandt. You awake?"

"No." He stood up and hesitated between the bathroom and the bed. "You want me to take her?"

"You wash up. Then you can have her."

Jane enjoyed Alicia's attempts at escape then tickled her until she squealed. 

Will paused to smile at them when he came out before he took Alicia off her hands. "There's a spare go bag under the sink if you need toiletries."

"Thank you."

It really was convenient that they both worked enough IMF missions with sudden leave times that they were prepared for anything, even a howling wolf cub in the middle of the night and an unplanned sleepover. Jane figured she would need to broach getting her own space here though if this started to become a habit.

* * *

"So what happened to her parents?"

Will paused pouring the coffee pot, breath coming a little less easy before he shrugged, poured, and answered. "My brother was in the Army. KIA. His wife was in the middle of divorcing him and trying to leave him with custody."

Jane winced.

"Yeah. I know." He turned to her and shook his head. "With all the craziness of work and what have you, still." He gestured toward Alicia on her lap, pawing at Jane's arm to try and get at her glass of orange juice. "Who'd just throw her away?"

* * *

Ethan shot Jane a disapproving look the next time she climbed in the van behind him.

"You don't call. You don't write," Benji complained in concert.

"I'm working," she retorted. "I'm in the middle of deep mission prep."

Ethan leaned back to give her a more assessing once-over. "Is that right?"

Jane huffed and buckled in. "Brandt coming?"

"Yes," Ethan answered at the same time Benji started up again.

"And here I thought you were just busy being a mama. You know." He glanced back.

"We're looking for a babysitter," Jane said, as if she wasn't annoyed at Ethan's surprise. "You can bring your girlfriend."

Benji was still sputtering when Brandt got in and asked Ethan for the laptop.

* * *

They all made it out alive and unhospitalized, a simple extraction of another agent—if three explosions, a firefight, and a emergency power grid shutdown qualified as simple.

Ethan congratulated her on getting her own team, Benji fishgaped at the news, and Will got dragged out early by a phone call from the scarier half of his job.

"I never used to think analysis could be scary," Jane commented.

Ethan looked up with a bit of a puzzled frown. 

She shook her head. It was easy to forget sometimes what went into figuring out their missions and what ripple effects those missions would have on the world. It wasn't really a field agent's job. "Well... Then I met Brandt. I wouldn't want to make decisions that big."

"We already do." Ethan shrugged it off.

Jane could see the point, but though she made the decisions over the lives of her teammates and the people affected by her missions, Brandt made calls that affected all of the IMF. It wasn't so surprising he was always a little stressed, even when things were going well.

She stayed for a while longer, shooting the breeze to get them off her back, then headed home. Halfway there, she changed course for the other home.

* * *

It was late when Jane got in, and she didn't really expect to see Will hovering in his bedroom doorway to make sure she got in okay. He looked exhausted, rumpled, and like he'd just rolled out of bed, hair every which way.

"Brandt."

Faint hurt flickered in his face. "Will."

She hadn't really thought about it, and she'd been using both names in different contexts for a while. She looked him over a little obviously. "You shouldn't have waited up."

"Mm." He made a noncommittal sound. "Just got her down."

"How is she? Hopefully better than you look." Jane kept her tone light and though he huffed, he didn't seem offended.

"She's okay. Just..." He shrugged.

Jane nodded. "Attachment issues." It was actually a common problem with those born in their nonhuman form. Will handled it well overall, even though it could have been more problematic than usual with his job.

"And you?" she asked softly.

He cocked his head, trying to read her.

She wanted to reach up and smooth down his hair and make sure he got to bed, but there was still some space between them, an acknowledgement that their sleeping arrangements were about Alicia, not them.

Finally, Will shrugged. "Whatever it is, just say it."

She looked at him for a long moment, mouth slightly open as if she could articulate 'whatever it was,' but that had never been her strong point. "Good night, Will." She slipped by toward Alicia's room.

Will sighed behind her. She heard his door close with a quiet click as she reached Alicia's.

The cub had sprawled over her pillow, face down, and breathing softly. Reassured, Jane smiled and went to the guest room to collapse.

* * *

The guest room kept its name, but not its function. By the time Alicia was rolling around and stumbling to find her paws and figure out this crawling business with human hands and knees, the guest room had become Jane's room and she slept there whenever she didn't end up collapsed on her side against Will's wolf form, a small cub snuggled in between them.

Neither of them talked about their increasingly shared sleeping arrangements, just traded off caretaking, procuring childcare when they weren't there, and making sure there were groceries in the fridge.

"You have to promise you'll sleep while I'm away," Jane ordered as she packed her bag for the mission. Alicia was flopped across her feet and chewing on her laces. Every so often, Jane would reach down and untangle them from Alicia's teeth.

Will had the oddest expression on his face as he came in to lean against the inside of the doorway. "Have fun down there."

Jane wasn't sure if he was resigned, unhappy, or something else, but whatever that look was, she didn't like it. She hesitated. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. Alicia's fine. _You'll_ be fine." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "You deserve this."

She shrugged, shoulders hunching, and zipped her bag with more force than necessary. "We'll see."

"Overthinking," he chided, small smile peeking out from under serious eyes.

She shot him a look. "Like you?"

She shook her head and Will just watched without comment. She hadn't led a team in a couple years now. She wasn't really sure she wanted to try again.

Except she did.

Jane zipped up her duffel and bent down to kiss a startled Alicia on the tip of her nose. "I'll be back." She grinned at Will.

He was staring at her and Alicia, and she couldn't quite read the intent expression on his face.

* * *

Her new team dove directly into action, pulling out the intel she had spent the last few months getting solid and then some as the final mission parameters slotted into place. Agent CeCe Morales was a bit of a reckless, trigger-happy field agent who'd never been on any other track. Agent Dustin Jones was comm and tech. He wasn't as good as Benji, but he'd do, and Jane knew it. She had Agent Alejandro Delfino on insertion into the target's network of people.

The situation on the ground was hot and the timetable for intervention had been bumped up "because our primary intel agent got knifed a week and a half ago," Jane informed them. "His cover was blown or one of our contacts in the organization sold him out."

To Delfino, "I don't want you to trust anyone, no matter who cleared them, if they are not a member of this team. Use them, but be careful. I don't intend for you to be next."

She brought up the pictures of their targets on the monitors. "We know they're intending to move and soon. What we don't know yet is where their arms are coming from and whether this is an all-out coup. We also know they've been moving a lot of specialized weaponry through this region and testing it on the locals. Again, don't be next. We stick to the plan."

And change the plan on the fly, she acknowledge worriedly to herself. She knew from plenty of experience that it likely wouldn't survive first contact with the organization.

* * *

Jane waited until she was alone and in the communication-cleared safehouse before she holed up in her corner of the place and video-conferenced Will.

She could see the wreck of his home office behind him, looking suspiciously like a hectic day with the now highly mobile little person they had underfoot, and said little person on his lap plunking both of her small hands against the computer screen.

Alicia screeched her excitement.

Jane smiled and put her hand over the image of Alicia's. "Hi."

"We miss you," Will said roughly.

The way he said it caught her attention, and Jane brought her gaze from Alicia to his. We. Not just Alicia. "I'll come back."

"Come back safe," he countered.

"Are you telling me to be careful, Agent Brandt?" she asked, amused and pleased. "Because I'm pretty sure that's not in the job description."

Will glanced meaningfully at Alicia then back to her. "Come back safe."

Her daughter, her baby girl with that bright, happy smile, wanting Jane. "I will," she promised.

* * *

They worked smoothly together. Jones tapped them into the IMF's previous surveillance set up on the key targets, and Delfino went in without a hitch and without tipping off any of their previous contacts. Except one.

Delfino's job was to pick off the contact that knew of the IMF's involvement, _and got their agent killed,_ Jane kept on her own front burner. She couldn't handle Moreau, and she couldn't save Hannaway, and when it came down to it, this contact was an asset too. For now. But Jane wasn't willing to lose more of her people or let anyone who hurt them get away with it. Morales and Jones seemed on board with that general principle.

Morales and Jones went hard after the weapons caches, first to locate them, then to find a way to put them out of commission for their event date looming on the horizon.

"You think it's a military coup?" Morales asked.

Jane put together what evidence she had in front of her and wished for a moment she had Brandt's analytical skills. "It has to be." She looked at Jones. "So when are all the members of the current government going to be meeting in a single building?"

"I don't know, but I'll find out."

* * *

They'd already infiltrated the building, set smaller caches, and now all they needed was to show up on time and trigger them.

Jane swore and changed up the plan because there was nothing else to do but get in there and deactivate the triggers or clear out the caches before everything went sky high.

"Delfino. I need our snitch, and I need what he knows on how to deactivate those triggers. Now."

"Understood, boss."

"I can deactivate the weaponry itself if you get me in there," Jones commented from where he was currently deeply engrossed in examining a piece of the unusual explosive Morales had brought back from a field trip. "The trigger activates this piece here, which releases the ingredients for a poison gas reaction here, then that triggers melting in the wires here, which if these are placed correctly will then turn into an electrical fire, aided and abetted by continuing reactions here."

"Thus our rash of residential electrical fires over the last few months," Morales commented dryly.

It was the least of the testing. The locals subjected to the poison gas tests had experienced far worse.

"What do you need for us to get you in?" Jane asked.

Jones looked up, as if suddenly realizing what he'd suggested. He looked a little green, but shook it off better than Brandt had that jump. "If I deactivate the first one, it will throw an error signal and request for maintenance. They'll blow it early if they realize what we're doing."

Morales groaned. "There are three trigger points in the building."

"So a gas mask, an all-access guest pass, and an indestructible personal body armor?" Jones quipped.

"There are three of us," Jane said. "And three trigger points. We go in at the same time and deactivate them simultaneously."

* * *

It would have worked—if there hadn't been four.

There were four, and when Jane saw the hostile agent going for his trigger, she didn't think, just leapt into action, and threw herself at him. She'd fought before and for less and she used everything she had, every strength except shifting straight to eagle because if she survived, that intelligence about her wasn't something she could afford to give up.

She knocked the trigger out of their hands and Morales got off a shot at the hostile. Someone got a shot off at Jane.

She hit the ground, blood blooming up—hot iron liquid in her throat. She coughed as she went down. Voices shouted into the fading hubbub as she lost consciousness.

* * *

Jane drifted in and out during medevac to beeping monitors, white daylight, yellow lamps, "We got 'em, Carter," from Morales and so much pain.

Her fingers itched for fur. _"Come back safe."_

* * *

Alicia started squirming in Will's arms the moment she got a good look at Jane.

"Aww, come here." Jane held out her arms for Will to gently hand over the wriggling cub before he sat down wearily by her hospital bed.

"Please don't scare us like that again." He didn't look so good—tired, dark circles under his eyes—she noted with concern as he sank back into the chair.

Jane fussed as she drew Alicia up into her arms. "How was she?" The cub sprawled across her chest, nose tucked under Jane's chin, and sighed. She showed no sign of moving, not even the way she had of fussing or begging for a more comfortable position or a tighter hug.

 _"Please_ don't scare us like that again," Will repeated fervently.

Jane read worse than the usual clinginess in the answer, but if he'd been worried about her, Alicia probably would have picked up on it. She kissed the tip of Alicia's nose and diverted the conversation. "You're getting too big for this."

"She's still a baby," Will pointed out with a tired smile.

"A big baby," Jane replied.

And she was. Alicia was heavy as befitted her shapeshifter nature and the extra mass that generally required. Jane had to carefully keep the bulk of Alicia's weight on the uninjured side of her body.

"So she ran you ragged?" Jane kept her voice light.

Will scrubbed his face with one hand. "She cried for her mama and when mama didn't come, she changed to wolf and wouldn't let me stop holding or cuddling her without pitched howling."

The doctor, a small, dark woman in white lab coat, entered with her usual brusque efficiency. She took one look at Alicia and started to say, "You can't—", then cut herself off with an "Oh" as she noticed the difference between age and development for a human rather than pure wolf. "She's your daughter?" she asked politely, glancing toward Will.

Jane hugged Alicia a little tighter. Alicia's dark eyes never moved from staring at Jane, as if she was afraid to let Jane out of her sight. "Yes. She's my daughter."

* * *

She was released from the hospital three days later, the bullet wound in her abdomen finally healed enough that the staff stopped fretting that she'd reopen it. Will drove them back to his place and carried Jane's bags and Alicia's carrier into the living room behind her.

"Good to have you back," he said carefully.

Jane looked around at the familiar, comfortable setting—her perch in the corner, Alicia's dog bed she still preferred some nights, the carrier at Will's feet where Alicia looked like she was trying to wrestle her way out by brute force, and the sunlight streaming in through too-large windows like Will preferred. "It's good to be home," she said softly.

Will looked at her oddly then untucked Alicia from the baby carrier. "I'm going to feed this little one. You get comfortable."

Grateful for the thought, Jane headed back toward the master bedroom and her stash of clothes in Will's closet. Somehow they'd started parenting together and ended up almost living together. She found something comfortable, jeans, a hoodie, and headed for the shower. It was good to get clean and wash off the hospital smell and feel. She'd been gone too long, first on the mission and then recovering, and she'd missed the simple things that made her feel normal like the smell of her own shampoo.

Through the sound of running water, she could hear the high-pitched shriek of Alicia's laughter and the murmur of Will's voice. Tickling her probably. Alicia loved to be tickled. Then there was barking and thumps and all the sounds of play and home.

Jane turned off the water and wrapped a towel around her to step out of the bathroom and lean in the bedroom door where she could watch them for a minute.

Will had changed to wolf, probably following Alicia's own change where she was sprawled and trying to _roll_ her way to safety. He let her almost get away before yipping and rolling after her, then mouthing gently at Alicia's stomach. A low howl admitting her loss, then she pounced on Will and tugged on his ear.

Jane could watch them for hours. Will was good with Alicia, letting her win, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck when she looked like was getting into more trouble than she could handle, which was often. Jane hadn't often seen a child so inclined to always be doing or exploring something.

Alicia got tangled up in her own limbs and changed back to human, looking dazed but giggling when Will licked her cheek. He changed and picked her up.

"You were supposed to be eating."

Alicia just giggled and tugged on his hair.

Will shook his head and sat back against the wall on the floor, which is when he noticed Jane. Which is when Jane remembered she was wet and wearing nothing but a towel.

She blushed and went back in the bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her.

* * *

She didn't usually have to share a bed with Will, though she'd lost track of the times they'd sprawled exhausted together, his wolf to her human with Alicia finally asleep between them. Sometimes still, Alicia needed him to be what she'd known first to settle down. Sometimes still, she needed Jane to be the human comfort that told her both kinds were her own.

"I think I'm accidentally moving in with you," Jane murmured, low enough to not wake the baby.

Will lifted his head, dark eyes too intelligent for an animal. He shook his head and laid it back down, his own equivalent of a shrug.

She thought about it. It would be more convenient.

* * *

She broached the topic again the next morning as they moved around each other easily in the kitchen. Will sighed exaggeratedly at Jane's verbal fussing while she fixed coffee.

"Everyone's already getting the wrong idea." She poured him a mug of black because Will could not be trusted to make coffee and had no _taste_ other than super-caffeinated and black, then added milk and sugar to her own.

"Look, Jane. This is your idea, all right. You don't want to move in, don't move in," he tried again, equal parts reasonable and exasperated.

It was her idea, it just… _bothered_ her because they were all getting the wrong idea. Benji teased Will mercilessly and Ethan just smiled warmly at the two of them, as if he was glad she was moving on after Hannaway and figuring out a nicer way to let Will know than hitting him.

"I could always punch you," she commented.

"Okay. Totally random." Will moved a step away anyway. He sipped his coffee and regarded her with suspicious eyes. "What's bothering you?"

She wanted to fidget with her hands and rise on her toes with her rising agitation. She opted to dump the coffee grounds and rinse out the pot instead. "I'm just trying to make a big decision here and it's supposed to be _our_ decision."

Will sighed longsufferingly. "Fine. Move in. It'll be better for Alicia."

There was always that, the perfect excuse, though Jane was pretty sure it was supposed to be the reason.

"It's not like this changes anything," Jane pointed out, reasonably.

Will smiled over his mug. "Not materially, no."

She was pretty sure they both knew she'd been practically moved in already.

* * *

Ethan and Benji definitely thought it changed things.

"I know you're both grown adults," Benji began his assessing speech with as they all stood in Will's living room, the truck waiting outside, "so I think you can both acknowledge that all this furniture is not going to fit in here."

"It will," Jane stated. She had already made up her mind on that point. They would find a way.

Ethan and Will exchanged glances. Ethan looked at the living room with an expressively resigned expression on his face. Will rubbed the back of his neck like he had a wealth of commentary he was wise enough not to say.

She admitted, "We'll just have to rearrange a bit."

"A bit," Will agreed, voice strained slightly.

* * *

What followed was a pleasant bit of hubbub and chaos as they pushed and shoved and rearranged 'a bit', then paused to break when Alicia woke from her nap with a high, thin wail. It was her hungry cry, and Jane set down her end of the bookcase to Benji's startled, "Whoa!" and went to get her.

Ethan followed Jane into the kitchen as she rocked and soothed Alicia.

He helpfully handed her a bottle this time.

"Thank you." Jane coaxed Alicia to drink, somewhat unsuccessfully. "I swear, she's always fussier when people are over."

"So you and Brandt..." Ethan started leadingly.

Jane shot him a less than patient look.

"He's treating you well?"

"Ethan."

He sighed. "I know. We're just friends, and it's none of my business."

Jane wanted to growl in frustration but settled for leveling an exasperated look at him. _"Will_ and I are just friends and it's _absolutely_ none of your business."

Ethan looked startled, then stared at her for a long moment, frowning. "Jane, everybody sees it. You two are—"

"Just friends who are raising a daughter together."

Alicia's wail got louder. Jane just glared at him, turned away, and focused on hushing her baby.

* * *

She was exhausted but wide awake. She couldn't seem to stop watching the way Will's hands stroked gently over Alicia's back as she curled up, all puppy sweet between them, and wonder what it would feel like to have his hand on her instead. All thoughts that were inappropriate and _bothering_ her.

Jane rolled over from her side to her back and sighed.

"Can't sleep?" Will asked softly, voice so quiet in the almost dark of the nightlight that she almost missed it.

Jane looked over to see the faint question in his eyes. She sat up carefully to avoid nudging Alicia and leaned forward on her knees. She shook her head in answer.

If Will had any idea of what she was thinking, she wondered if she'd die of embarrassment, if he'd want her anywhere near his bed, whether or not it was to keep their daughter happy, or... She tried not to think about Hannaway's dying words because wasn't it her luck she always waited until it was too late to do anything about it.

"I don't think she'll wake if you want to sleep in your own room," Will offered.

Jane finally gave voice to this thing that was starting to wear on her. "We are just friends, right?"

He blinked back surprise, but his tone was guarded when he answered. "Right now, yeah."

She looked at him. Right now.

"You don't have to be locked in by us," he said after a moment of too much silence, hand still on Alicia's back. "If you want to see someone..."

Jane didn't even know what to say to that or to make of Will's cryptic expression. "Who do you think I want to date?"

"I don't know." He leaned back into the pillow, shrugging a little, voice lighter. "What about Luther?"

She couldn't help the smile that quirked her mouth. "I think he's with someone."

"Really? How does he have the time?"

"You do."

They both looked over at Alicia.

"Even if mine's pint-size," Will said softly.

Alicia's ears twitched and she squirmed. Jane held her breath, seeing if she'd wake up. She didn't. Will exhaled relief while Jane carefully lay back down beside them.

"Good night," she whispered.

Their fingers tangled together in Alicia's fur.

* * *

Alicia wasn't the only one that preferred when they were together. Jane was currently repenting from her last request for help on the caretaking front.

"If I can babysit hacking into an actively monitored compu—"

"Benji," Jane cut him off with a warning. "This is not the same thing."

Will appeared in the bedroom doorway tie half-undone to agree loudly. "We are trusting you with a human being."

"I'm just saying I'm attentive," Benji protested. "I'll take care of her."

He looked like the irresponsible uncle with his baseball cap and hoodie, baby bag thrown over one shoulder and baby carrier in one hand.

Jane felt a pang at leaving Alicia to his questionable influence.

"She's not old enough to teach how to hack yet," Benji pointed out, practically reading her mind.

"Don't get any ideas," Will ordered and disappeared back in the room before reappearing with briefcase and suit jacket. "I'll see you later."

"Late," Jane corrected. "Very late."

"Yes, very late," he agreed, but the distraction had worked long enough for him to gently herd her out the door before she could snatch Alicia back from their chosen babysitter. "Jane," he said on the step.

She shook her head. "It's fine." And it was fine. Attachment issues. She'd go to work and be absolutely fine even if it wasn't Will watching the baby.

* * *

It gave her an edge on the range than into the meeting with her superiors and receiving a new mission, should she choose to accept it.

She did.

* * *

"So you can pick your own team?" Will asked to confirm as he set the dinner table with their hastily thrown together meal.

"Should they choose to accept it, yeah." She bounced Alicia on her hip gently as she stood in the doorway, trying to keep a hold on the squirming child.

Will looked up at that. "They'd be crazy not to."

She gave him a puzzled smile. That didn't sound like an analytical thing to say at all, and "Ow, ow, ow. Alicia." She carefully caught Alicia's exploring fingers and untangled them from her hair.

Alicia made noises of protest, then went back to attempting to escape and hit the light switch.

Jane shook her head at her and dropped a kiss on her dark hair. She looked up and saw Will staring at them, the oddest look in his eyes. Or not so much odd as unexpected.

"What?" she asked.

His gaze flicked to Alicia. He shook his head.

* * *

So Will was right on one front.

Benji said, "Well, _yes."_

Morales grinned and made grabby hands. "Promise me it'll be crazy."

Jane laughed at that. "Oh, Benji will _love_ you."

Benji did not.

* * *

"What are you thinking?" Will asked softly.

Jane looked back, startled to realize he'd come up behind her without her even noticing. She turned back to looking at the crib where Alicia had sprawled puppylike under the blanket and was now yawning into her pillow. "I keep turning her so she doesn't suffocate."

Will chuckled softly. "But she has ideas of her own." He moved the pillow so it would be harder for Alicia to bury her nose into it.

She whined without waking.

Jane ran her fingers gently behind Alicia's ears until she curled up on her side, ears back, and snuggled in to sleep. "Think that might work," Jane murmured under her breath. Alicia didn't move around as much from that position. "Do you think she's a cub too often?"

Will shrugged. "Not really. It's how she started out."

Which was a good point. Jane hummed thoughtfully to herself, then leaned over and kissed Alicia goodnight.

Will followed her to the door and they stepped out in the hallway together.

She leaned back against the wall, and Will paused with her, clearly reading that she wanted to say something. But she just looked for a minute because she kept thinking she was seeing something when he looked at her, hard to read but intense, so finally, she just asked.

"What were you thinking in there?"

He cocked his head, puzzled, then realization flickered across his face, and he shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

Jane huffed quietly. "Why not? I keep thinking…" But neither of them quite knew how to go out on a limb and break this stalemate.

Will glanced back toward the crib through the open door. "Let's just say I did the risk/reward analysis."

She stared at him for a long moment. That was such a _Brandt_ thing to say, and she shouldn't have been surprised. They were parents together, and there was no way he'd want to risk that on a maybe.

"I could always hit you," she muttered, allowing just a little of her frustration to color her voice.

He looked incredulous. "Seriously, Jane. What's with the hitting thing?"

She shook her head, suddenly embarrassed. She wasn't _good_ at this, and it would have been nice if the universe had seen fit to give her a guy who was so she didn't have to be. "I punched the first guy I liked," she admitted.

It got very quiet. She looked back up at him.

He was very still, face unreadable.

She shrugged a little, tried to find the right words. "I don't know how to say things like that."

He blinked, and she thought she could see him reevaluating different moments, different things they'd said, but then he was leaning forward, hand catching her cheek softly. Her breath hitched and she moved to meet him.

His mouth was soft on hers, a brief kiss, almost just a test, but it was warm and sweet and she didn't let him pull away after. She tugged him closer, kissed him harder. He drew her away from the nursery without breaking contact. When they did finally let go to breathe, she pulled him into his bedroom before kissing him again. His hand moved up her spine, pressing a little harder than she'd expected as he moved his mouth over her jaw, then down her throat.

She hissed in pleasure and felt the shift of the predator inside her responding to the vulnerability. He bit down and that felt good, heat flooding her, but it startled her enough to rake her nails over the back his neck and dig in a little to his shoulders to hold back a shift to talons and wings. They were both holding back, she realized.

"Brandt. Bed," she ordered.

His head came up, fierce grin as he kissed her and pulled her toward the bed and down with him.

She tried to hold back, but _"Come on, Jane. Let go,"_ and they were rough with each other, bites and bruises and wanting more and closer, and Jane was glad Alicia was asleep because they were loud and Will seemed to like that, tried to drag every sound out of her she tried to swallow back.

Afterward, he planted one last, softer kiss on her shoulder and offered, "You okay?", thumb rubbing tellingly over her hip where it ached at the touch.

He'd marked her all over, but she'd marked him too.

She shook her head and wrapped his arms around her more comfortably. "Yeah. I'm fine."

And she was. For the first time since she realized that Ethan was maybe right, she was perfect.

* * *

Jane wasn't particularly pleased when the call came from Ethan the next morning. Will just laughed as she grumbled her way into the shower, then joined her and that was pleasant but lasted only a few minutes before Alicia was quite audibly awake.

"I'll get her." She ceded the shower, pulled on some clothes, and collected an overexcited cub hungry for breakfast. Jane decided to wonder later if Alicia was spending too much time as a wolf and instead focused on feeding her and calling the girl from Accounting that Alicia had adored even more than Benji.

"At least he has good taste in girlfriends," Jane commented when Will emerged and came looking for coffee.

"Who? Benji?" Will nodded. "So you think Ethan has a mission for us?"

Jane smiled. "Benji can't babysit and he asked for both of us. Should we choose to accept it..."

And of course, they would.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for 'Transition' by scribblemyname](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4254303) by [stormbrite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormbrite/pseuds/stormbrite)
  * [All Paws and Tails](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4312572) by [hiddencait](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait)




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